This video is of a outside third rail O scale layout filmed in the late 40's. You think track work is hard now, try outside third rail. Also you had to wear suits then to run a model pike. Don
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Memories
Not in Brooklyn,NY. I believe the Bay Ridge O scale club still uses outside Third Rail.
Listen to the background music. Some of it was also used in the Lionel short Iron Ponies!
The narrator's voice is pretty close, too......
Peter
Very interesting! I wonder if the famous collector and toy train author Mr. Louis Hertz was involved with this club?
Point of interest about the Westchester Model Railroad. It was located in an unused New Haven Railroad station located in Pelham Manor, NY. As a kid I would ride my bicycle to the station hoping to gain entry. However, it was always closed and I never got to see the layout, except through the windows.
The station and layout are long gone. The New England Thruway, I95 now runs right through area where the station was located.
"Also you had to wear suits then to run a model pike." What - you don't dress formally to run your trains? (Actually, with some of us who spend way too much time in the backyard train building or basement, it's a good day when we dress at all...though I do heartily recommend it when doing soldering...)
Funny that this outside "3-rail O", when still seen, never gets that roll-of-the-eyes from some that center-rail 3RO gets, even the center-rail Hi-rail scale stuff. Brainwashing.
Pretty cool stuff.
I've seen pictures of guys digging ditches back in the day in vests and neckties. I guess folks had more style back then? I work in an office and we wear blue jeans and polo shirts now.
I'm all for comfortable...but there is a time and place for jeans.
A timeless classic of happier simpler times!
BobbyB posted:Point of interest about the Westchester Model Railroad. It was located in an unused New Haven Railroad station located in Pelham Manor, NY. As a kid I would ride my bicycle to the station hoping to gain entry. However, it was always closed and I never got to see the layout, except through the windows.
The station and layout are long gone. The New England Thruway, I95 now runs right through area where the station was located.
Here's some pics of the old station.....
The reason why it was abandoned was because it was on the New Haven's Harlem River Line which leaves the New Haven main line into Grand Central at New Rochelle junction. This line was electrified circa 1912 and ran over the Hell Gate bridge into Penn Station. In the Van Ness area, it was joined side by side by the New York Westchester & Boston RR, sharing several stations....However, ridership was poor and passenger service was abandoned in the early 30s.
This is the line Amtrak uses this line to go through Penn Station for the Northeast Corridor. If you look quickly in the South Bronx, some remnants of the old/abandoned stations can be seen.
Here's a link....scroll down to the Harlem River Line.....
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/bronx.html
Peter
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I saw this layout several times. I lived in New Rochelle. The Westchester & Boston RR ran right next to the Roosevelt elementary school I went too in Wykagyl. There was a station on North Ave in the Wykagyl. I also went by the end of the street I lived on in NR. Peter, you know the history better than me, but I was there. My father took me to see Tommy Manville's layout when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was.
PRR, is the bay ridge club still operating? I remember it was in the basement of a building off of Oliver st and marine but haven't seen it in years there. Did it change locations??. It was a beautiful layout.
was made 15 years before I was born but really cool. The voice over is great
Great video
Love the outside third rail, hasn't been a common sight at O scale layouts in a very long time.
Bogie
